A properly planned and designed training process can create the potential for a virtuous learning circle, as shown in Exhibit 5.2. Effectiveness focus Perceived relevance Immediate application Rewards from application Enthusiasm for further learning Exhibit 5.2
The virtuous learning circle
As shown in the first exhibit, perceived relevance of the training programme is the starting point of any training programme. The trainees shall be willing to learn only if they feel that the skills acquired as a result of the training shall be of use to them. The organization would devote the resources
to training programme only if it would perceive certain benefits resulting out of it. Next in the process are the immediate advantages resulting out of the training. Long-term benefits are too abstract and difficult to measure. Immediate manifestation of the changed behaviour and the skills are of great advantage to the trainees as well as the trainers. These can be reinforced by the rewards and incentives to learn. The trainees would be motivated to put the newly learnt skills these into practice, which would provide them with further enthusiasm for learning. This would result into learning effectiveness, which would further improve the perceived benefits of a training programme.
The vicarious learning sequence can be shown in the form of the following sequence.
Generalized knowledge/skills
Transfer to own situation
Difficultly in application
Absence of rewards for learned processes
Full Stop
The starting point of vicarious learning is generalized knowledge and skills, that are required for undertaking a job. These generalized skills have to be transferred according to the job-specific situation. For example, in an MBA
programme, the candidates acquire various types of skills and knowledge. However, when they join any organization, these skills have to be re-learnt to suit the specific requirements of the nature of the job that one is required to do. However, difficulties in application and absence of rewards for learned processes can virtually stop the entire learning process. It must be noted that vicarious learning process is just the reverse of virtuous learning cycle, as shown in Exhibit 5.2. While in the former, training reinforced learning, in this the whole learning exercise can become a futile effort. The role of trainer becomes very crucial in this because he can make or mar the entire process. If he performs his job effectively, he can convert the learning into a virtuous activity, where each process reinforces the advantages. If he is not very careful while doing his job, he can create a situation where there is a complete cession of the learning exercise.
If a training programme is developed carefully, it reduces the undue emphasis on evaluation aspect to more action-based learning. The whole shift of emphasis to action-based learning helps to remove one of the foremost traditional problems of management education and training. Various managers and tutors have complained that an undue emphasis on structured off-the-job learning experiences have created more problems of transfer of learning. Off-the job training creates an environment of artificiality and can even hamper with the learning, which the managers might have acquired while on-the job.
Modern motivational theories have established that behaviour that is not rewarded is not willingly engaged upon again.
Some managers who undergo training or educational experiences they consider as useful or interesting or stimulating, they shall be willing to return to similar experiences subsequently. Others, who do not consider training as being useful to them, are relatively unwilling to attend in the first place and/or experience nothing like stimulation or utility during the course. All too often this can be traced back to the failure of courses to deal with the issues of what managers really do, and to deal with them in the ways most related to their normal managerial work processes.
If trainers plan various aspects of evaluation carefully, then corrective steps can be taken easily to improve the results. The training programmes could have been designed to achieve better effectiveness and addressed to broader issues of knowledge or skill in a more effective way. However, emphasis given to effectiveness issues makes the evaluation process more difficult because the learning is built into the action and is difficult to separate for evaluation purposes. Emphasis on effectiveness and reality do not in themselves completely overcome the need for careful choice of effective learning processes. Management Development has been far too subject to short-lived approaches, each of them claiming to be uniquely appropriate to developing managers. Over the years, T-groups, grid training, coaching, self-development, action learning and now outdoor training are the most preferred techniques for training and learning. However, adoption of any single technique as the predominant answer to those problems is lazy and incompetent. Nor is the answer in a further proliferation of management development processes. Thus, the supposedly well-designed course will
include role-plays, films, case studies, lectures, and an afternoon in the resource center etc.
The phrase ‘continuous learning’ is now becoming popular. It will be no more than a promotional phrase if the learning processes necessary to secure it are not provided. For learning to be continuous, rather than simply a series of events, tutors need to equip people to learn effectively outside and around those events. They need to do so for the absolutely obvious reason that for most managers most learning will occur or not occur ‘on-the-job’.